Sorry guys, you cant disable autoupdate on steam (don't believe the properties menu, it lies). Any attempts to install or launch the game will automatically override the do not update option. And of course steam will not allow you to play the game in offline mode, so that's a no-go as well. Just be patient and hope that firaxis doesn't go update crazy like stardock. That or pray someone discovers a magical .ini file that disables the override script.

Either that or wait from some enterprising collective to remove steam from the equation.

if id know this was a steam game i would not have gotten it i freaken hate steam because of rapid updates and cant use trainers for crap i wounder if there is a way to run civ 5 with out steam hopeful someone will come out with it

I dont like steam, never have and I cant think of any reason why I ever would. I paid for this game, and it wasnt to be watched over for single player play. Its all well and good for multiplayer, but otherwise a TSR id rather do without. Not to mention I cant seem to get the DLC from steam for the preorder.